Salvage and scrap
by kokob5
Summary: Jaune was a simple man and lived by a simple rule, salvage and scrap what you can, it was the rule of the Vacuo badlands really. Jaune made a general living producing explosives for a merchant known as Karma and when she asked a favor of him...he didn't expect it to get so wild... (Readers influence the direction and progress of the story.)
1. The bad lands

''How much did I drink last night…'' A figure covered in salvage armor mutters as he sits up using his right arm to block the baking heat and light of the sun from his sensitive eyes. ''I'm awake so piss off…'' The man says angrily rubbing his eyes before standing up with a series of cracks from his stiff joints from sleeping in his outfit. ''Aahh better…'' The man sighs out looking around to see sand, lots and lots of sand and a odd looking machine called the Type-25 RAV also known as a chopper sitting gathered some new rust to its already rusted shell. ''I'll clean ya another time bessy.'' The man says walking over to a small box and opening it to show a couple of bottles of water and old MRE's making him sigh. ''Another supply run it is…'' The man mutters taking a bottle of water and the MRE.

After quickly eating the MRE and drinking a small amount of the water the man takes a seat on the Chopper and places his hands onto the two handles that worked as it's driving tool. ''For something meant for farming you're probably the best war machine on remnant…'' The man mutters pushing the handles forwards causing the large wheel to spin kicking up a large amounts of sand and quickly rocketing off hitting sixty in three seconds making the man smile under his face mask that covered the lower part of his face while an aviator cap covered the rest of his head.

''Right where the hell is that market place again…'' The man mutters taking his eyes off the wasteland ahead of him and looking down at a handmade map showing Vacuo of the four kingdoms, more precisely the tail end that was split into three parts, the desert, the jungle and the tundra. ''How the fuck does a tundra even form near a desert and a forest?'' The man asks himself for the thousandth time before shaking his head and looking at a dote marked 'TRADE CENTRE' making him nod and role the map up with one hand and look ahead.

And slam right into a unlucky Chupacabra (A type of Griim) covering the man and most of the front of the Chopper in a black fluid that stank like a week old corpse in the desert, the man resisting the urge to vomit stops the Chopper knowing if he continued he'd fuck up the machine. ''Right…look where your going.'' The man says face palming a bit to hard to be considered safe and inspects the front of the Chopper with a sigh. The wheel that made up over half the vehicle was covered in the black fluid that was slowly turning into mist leaving the white bone like material stuck in the two split wheels making the man sigh and stick his hand into the vehicle and fish for the broken Grimm plates.

After what felt like an hour of cleaning the man finally manages to get all the Grimm armor plates out of the vehicle and places the ones larger than his thumb into a small pouch at his side to sell. Grimm plates that didn't destroy themselves along with the Grimm were usually sold and made into all sorts of things from tooth picks to armor and even bullets by the people in the bad lands, as long as they knew how to temper them that is, although strong they usually ended up breaking if not handled properly.

''Well more money for me but less time…'' The man mutters aloud jumping back into the Chopper's seat and once more pushing the handles forward sending him speeding off, unknown to him leaving behind a horde of very pissed off Grimm following after him as best they can to get revenge for killing one of their own.

After another hour and a half of driving the man finally reaches the trading center marked clearly by the remains of a large Atlas cruiser sticking out of the ground looking like a giant spire. After pulling up infront of the gates the man looks up to see two corpses handing by a set of noses with small boards attached to there chests **'THEIFS GET STRUNG'** the man reads internally making him frown at the naked bodies. ''Best of luck.'' The man mutters as he turns his head to see a man dressed in a old military uniform with off bits of scrap armor attached. ''Well, well if it ain't the big bad wolf of the waste land! What do we own the pleasure of having you?'' The man says making the man smirk under his mask. ''Just here to trade like always Jim, how's the dog?'' The man says before asking the guards dog making him huff out a laugh. ''Good as always, he'd be better if ya gave him another one of those Grimm bones though.'' 'Jim' hints making the man sigh and fish through his bag and place a large bone about the size of his hand onto the panel. ''I get to keep my weapons this time.'' With that the man drives in as Jim open the gates.

The only work used to describe the trading center would be poor, simply put it was covered with people trying to sell their stuff for a quick buck, streets completely flooded with people, stales, junk and other crap that would probably kill a man if you were exposed to it long enough. ''Oi kid where the hell is Karma's shop!'' The man shouts stopping the Chopper beside a startled faunus girl in rags. ''Ug-umm Mista h-her shope ish o-over there!'' The girl stutters out at the imitating form of the man. ''Thank you little one.'' The man says putting his hand into his bag and pulling out a small sack about the size of the little girls and hand placing it into them before driving off towards Karma's shop leaving the girl to look inside the bag and gape at the bag of small gems.

''KARMA!'' The man shouts shutting the Chopper off and picking up his triple barreled sawed off shotgun walking towards the large hut. ''You alive?'' The man shouts in as he moves a sheet of cloth that's the door. ''Not for you.'' An elderly woman's voice reply's making the man smirk. ''I love it when you talk dirty to me.'' The man replies moving a certain to the side showing a room with two sofa's and a table in the middle, and on one of the sofa's was Karma sitting with her legs crossed and smoking an oriental pipe. ''Ha! I'm to young for you anyways.'' Karma replies making The man smirk as he takes a seat opposite her.

''So what are you here for? You never come just to say hi to me.'' Karma says after taking a drag from the pipe and blowing the smoke into the man's direction making him huff. ''Well you're right there Karma, I need food, water and some fuel for the Chopper, Jaune explains. ''That old thing? You know it's a plow modified for war?'' Karma asks making the man nod. ''Of course I do I was the one that installed the mods for it.'' The man explains making Karma sigh. ''What am I going to do about y-'' Karma stops suddenly as the man drops a bag onto the table with a thud making Karma open it and gape in shock.

''A-are these…'' Karma stutters out as the man nods. ''Yep custom made explosive charges that I'm o so famous for creating.'' The man says as Karma looks at the throw able charges making her frown at him suddenly. ''Kid you'd like a fortune selling these damned things! Everyone in the badlands wants them! Hell even the Anubis wants them!'' Karma half shouts aloud. ''Only for a fine lady such as yourself Karma.'' The man says with a chuckle as Karma takes another drag from the pipe. ''Alright, I'll give you what you need.'' Karma says with a sigh of defeat. ''Thank you Karma you're a life saver.'' The man says happily. ''Don't I know it.'' Karma says rolling her eyes and taking a sip of water.

''But.'' Karma suddenly speaks up stopping the man as he stands. ''I want you to go with the caravan to the main lands.'' Karma says making the man sigh as he sits back down. ''Karma you know well that Caravan won't make it.'' The man says seriously making Karma frown. ''I know…but if you're there with them maybe you can, the Military agreed meet the Caravan half way to escort it into the walls with no trouble.'' Karma explains making the man's eyes widen. ''What the hell did you do to convince them?!'' The man shouts in shock making Karma smirk, a smirk filled with pride. ''I told them about that old mine that's basically been run dry.'' Karma says making the man huff out a laugh. ''You played them hard Karma.'' The man says holding back more laugher. ''Alright I'll get my ass into gear and go with them, just let me head back and bring my goods.'' The man says as Karma nods watching him leave. ''You're a good man Jaune…don't let your past say otherwise.'' Karma speaks up freezing Jaune mid step. ''It's hard Karma…you know what I did that day.'' Jaune says looking back at her lifting up his goggles showing reptilian like eyes with pale white scaled skin surrounding them causing Karma to look at him sadly as he placed them back on and walked out.

After leaving the trade post and taking a few hours to get back to his scrap pile of a home and collect his stuff and throw in onto a trailer and attaching it onto the Chopper and heading back to the trade center ignoring the looks he was getting from the people as he passed. ''Karma I'm ready.'' Jaune shouts detaching the trailer and walking into the hut. ''Good there waiting for you now, you'll be escorting three big daddies.'' Karma briefs quickly making Jaune frown. ''Three? Who's with me then?'' Jaune asks. ''Two ravens, one King raven, Two tanks and a junk rat.'' Karma explains.

''It's a bit small…'' Jaune mutters. ''It's all we got kid, if we send anymore you'll bet the Sand pirates will come knockin'.'' Karma adds making Jaune sigh. ''Alright when do we leave?'' Jaune asks with a raised brow. ''Now actually.'' Karma says followed by a loud horn that shook the ground.

''I swear to god these things get bigger each time…'' Jaune mutters looking at the repurposed Assault Derricks filled with people to the brim, hell he was surprised they had leg room seeing as well over seven hundred people were jammed into the three of them combined. Looking to the sky Jaune spots the Raven helicopters flying over head the king raven being the largest with a set of missile launchers at the sides and a large bomb attached under it making him raise a brow as to how they managed to get that. ''Well that's reassuring…'' Jaune mutters looking around to see the two tanks and the junk rat ready to head out. ''That no so much…'' Jaune adds shaking his head as the gate guards open the gate allowing the Big daddies to move out Jaune quickly following after them his chopper kicking up sand.

''Junk rat I'll scout ahead a third a mile to keep an eye out, keep the two tanks at the sides and you guard the rear, and have the ravens fly in an arrow head position above the big daddies, I'll send you a radio call if I spot anything.'' Jaune explains getting a quick over from the other side and heading out just outside the small radio range leaving Jaune to the sound of his Choppers' engine burning through the fire dust crystal's inside.

Jaune sighs taking a hand from one of the handles and moving his goggles out of the way of his eyes and rubbing them feeling tired from the lack of action, they were almost a third of the way there and only silence, no sand pirates, no Grimm not even the Anubis had shown up, it was a blessing none of this had happened but it was rather…dull to say the least. ''Anything from the sky?'' Jaune asks pulling back to get into radio range. ''Nothin', place is as clean as a damned general store!'' The king Raven pilot replies making Jaune nod. ''Alright fire something off to get my attention if something happens, I'm leaving radio range again.'' Jaune says with a quick over at the end before driving ahead.

Jaune's eyes suddenly narrow slightly feeling an unnatural movement from the Chopper causing him to look down and to the sides and notice the ground was moving with him causing his eyes to widen to the size of dinner plates and swerve the Chopper around and apply the brakes causing the Choppers' wheel to grind against a hard surface that was defiantly not sand, quickly letting go of the break and speeding towards the caravan Jaune picks up the radio when he gets into range. ''TO THE RIGHT! WE GOT AN EARTH DWELLING GRIMM BELOW US!'' Jaune screams into the radio causing the tanks to quickly start to turn the right followed by the three big daddies and the king ravens and the junk rate just as the large Earth dweller surfaces showing it to be a large Grimm well over ten stories tall shaped like a centipede and covered in armor stronger than any war ships.

''KEEP THE THING AWAY FROM THE CARGO!'' Jaune shouts into the radio spinning the Chopper once more and slamming his thumbs onto buttons attached to the handles causing two attachments on either side of the vehicle to open fire sending explosive shells at the creature to get its attention. And succeeded much to his dread as the large Grimm turns it's head towards him and screams sending a shock wave out from the sheer volume of the Grimm making him cringe in pain as his ears begin to ring. ''Do what you do best and give em hell boys!'' Jaune shouts quickly hitting full speed to avoid getting crushed by the Grimm as it dive-bombs back into the sand cutting through it like butter quickly submerging itself in the sands.

''Drop a payload from one of the Big daddies!'' Jaune says into the radio as he looks back at the large vehicles and smirks as one's robotic arm's picks up a cylinder shaped object with a drill attached to it and moves it over the sands and drops it causing it to sink into the sand at speeds similar to the Grimm they'd encountered, after several seconds of waiting the ground suddenly shifts upwards as a dulled explosion is heard followed by a very pissed off Grimm suddenly resurfacing with a scream of agony having felt the explosion of the payload full on. ''Sure as hell did a lot to it…'' Jaune mummers looking at the many cracked armor plates of the large Grimm.

''Where the hell's the military!? They should be able to see this damned thing!'' one of the raven pilots shouts over the radio as it flies around the large Grimm as one of the people on it fire's one of the mini-guns from the side hatches. ''We don't know but they shouldn't be to lo- OH FU-'' The second raven pilot is interrupted as the Grimm sudden twists it's body in the way of the raven causing it to slam right into its armor plates instantly destroying the aircraft as it plummets to the ground and lands with a fiery explosion. ''GET AWAY FROM THE DAMNED THING!'' The king raven pilot shouts as they break away from the large Grimm as it continues its random spasms.

''Go around the thing while it's distracted!'' The junk rats drive shouts as the gunner aims the rocket turret on the back at the large Grimm ready to fire if it stops and begins to attack the Caravan again. ''You heard the man get moving!'' one of the drivers of the Big daddy's shouts as the large six wheeled vehicles start to move around the Grimm keeping a critical eye for hostile behavior towards the big daddies.

''We got air traffic nearby, maybe it's the Military?'' the remaining Raven pilot says over the radio. ''Or an Anubis airship, just lay low for now.'' Jaune says making the pilot nod and commit to radio silence. So they drove on silently praying the Air traffic was that of the Military Prayed that the large Grimm would continue to ignore them Sadly their prayers were for not as a distinct rumbling caused Jaune to look to the sky to see a large Airship painted a sand color flying overhead with the large bold letters 'A.N.U.B.I.S' Printed in bold on the sides. ''SKATTER!'' The raven pilot shouts causing everyone even Jaune to break formation as a hail of projectiles rained down blowing up the area, one shot in particular slamming in front of Jaune's Chopper causing it to flip and him to black out.

Jaune awoke to the sound of gunfire causing his ears to ring as he rolled over shaking his head before looking around to find the ANUBIS airship stuck in the ground with the ANUBIS soldiers taking cover behind what they could as they fought the Military and Jaune's forces, not only that but it seemed a large horde of Grimm had decided to take part in the fight, looking up Jaune could see two large Vacuo military airships flying overhead taking care of the large Grimm from earlier.

But now Jaune looked at the Big daddies and frowned, all in bad shape with small amounts of forces protecting them from Grimm and Anubis forces. Thus he now had a choice, join the main fight or protect the Civilians?

[X] Protect the civilians! It was your main objective all along plus the others seemed to have it covered well enough and you doubted anyone of the Big daddy's knew first aid very well.

[X] Join the fight! The large amount of civilians still had the big daddy's to protect them and most of the enemy forces were in the main fight anyways! The guards were dealing with stragglers at best.


	2. To protect the weak

[X] You have chosen to protect the civilians, a wise choice, not all glory comes from battle.

With a final shake of the head to clear up his vision Jaune runs to his Chopper grabbing his shotgun and a small compact tube of metal as well as a leather bag and tossing it around his shoulder before making his way towards the Big daddy's knowing the soldiers on the battle field could handle the ANUBIS forces and Grimm as long as the air support was with them.

''You things get weirder every day…'' Jaune mutters to himself readying his shotgun as he runs towards an ANUBIS soldier firing at the big daddy's, with a quick slam on the back of the helmet followed by a shotgun shell the soldiers head was blown clean off allowing Jaune to move on…had it not grabbed his leg causing him to fall.

''WHAT THE FUCK!?'' Jaune shouts in shock turning around and seeing the headless soldier claw its way up his body trying to grab his gun to use on him.

''On no you fucking don't!'' Jaune grinds out ignoring the weight on him as he grabs his shotgun from the ground next to him and shoots the soldier once more blowing the thing into several parts and caking Jaune in a black ooze that he guessed was meant to be the blood of the soldiers that clearly weren't human in nature.

With a breath of fresh air away from the dead Anubis soldier Jaune sprints, keeping his body tucked in close as to not get shot, toward the Big daddy's and diving behind cover as a large chunk of metal lands near by crushing a Creep what would have otherwise pounced on his back crushing his rubs due to its rubs.

''Way to close…'' Jaune says to himself peeking out of the cover to find what had thrown the large chunk of metal and spots a large four armed Grimm throwing ANUBIS soldiers around when they got close.

''That's one big son of a bitch.'' Jaune turns to see a masked man with an assault rifle with his brand on the side making him raise a brow.

''I don't think you were in the convoy.'' Jaune says flatly making the man shrug aiming over the way and firing a few pot shots towards the three ANUBIS soldiers pinning them down.

''I don't think that matters right now!'' The man shouts ducking back under the cover as several bullets hit a wall behind them where the man would have been had he not ducked.

''Fair enough, suppress fire for me so I can lob a grenade at them would you?'' Jaune asks prompting the man to nod lifting his gun cover the cover and firing blindly at the three soldiers making them break for a small piece of cover allowing Jaune to grab a frag grenade, arm it and throw it towards the soldiers' position.

''GOT EM!'' The man shouts watching the area the soldiers were taking cover in blow up in a mix of body parts and black ooze.

''Come on we need to get into a better position than this, the moment they realize where here they'll pin us down.'' Jaune says grabbing the man's arm and pulling him along with him as he makes a break for the Junk rat that was currently under a hail of gun fire.

''MAKE ROOM!'' Jaune shouts throwing the man with him behind the hunk rat and for Jaune to slide into cover as someone moves out of the way for him.

''COULD HAVE WARNED ME YOU KNOW!'' The man shouts over the gun fire only to be ignored by Jaune who pulls a small piece of a merrier out of his picket and holding it around the car to get a look at what he was dealing with.

''Well fuck me they have a tank.'' Jaune says flatly before getting up and booking it away from the junk rat following everyone else who had quickly taken the chance to escape death from the large tank that blew the junk rat up several seconds after they ran.

''KING YOU STILL UP THERE? IF YOU ARE WE GOT A TANK HEADING TOWARDS THE BIG DADDY'S, LIGHT THE THING UP!'' Jaune shouts into his hand held radio before throwing it into his bag and diving behind one of the big daddy's wheels.

''How the hell did that thing survive the crash?!'' The man Jaune had been tagging along with shouts in confusion looking around at the people currently trapped with them as if they'd give him an answer.

''Probably because it's made to withstand something like that.'' The junk rat's driver explains to the man before glancing out to see the tank slowly approaching.

''The things treads are fucked; it'll take a few more minutes before it gets into range with its armor piercing rounds.'' The junk rat driver adds on looking back at the seven people with him.

''So are we just going to sit under here and let it blow up the big daddy or what?'' The man responds causing the junk rat driver to shrug.

''If the king raven's still up it'll come help but we'll need to act just in case it doesn't arrive.'' Jaune says getting the attention of those with him.

''I've got some explosives with me, If I can reach it we can destroy the tank.'' Jaune explains to the group prompting the driver to speak up.

''How do you plan on getting to it? There's no cover between you and it and if you do get close it'll just blow you to high heaven.'' The driver says to Jaune making him shrug.

''I've got something that should help, never tested it though.'' Jaune replies grabbing the metal rod from his side and pressing it a button on it causing it to expand to just over Jaune's height followed by two blue energy shields coming out at each side and clamping together at the front forming a tower shield.

''So you plan on deconstructing everything fired at you, smart.'' The driver says nodding his head with an impressed look on his face liking how Jaune was utilizing deconstruction technology in a shield.

''It'll only stop one tank shell so I'll need you to keep the ANUBIS soldier busy while I rush the tank and plant the explosives.'' Jaune explains

''Well you heard him lads, let's get this show on the road.'' The driver says loading his gun with a fresh mag and moving his gun out of cover with everyone else and opening fire making the ANUBIS soldiers gather behind the slow moving tank Allowing Jaune to sprint towards the tank with his shield in front of him to block the first tank shot.

''This is gonna break my arm…'' Jaune mutters planting the shield and himself into the ground the moment he saw the tank aiming at him preparing to absorb the force of the round, and with a sicken crack Jaune bites down a shout of pain feeling his forearm break as the shell is deconstructed due to the shield, redirecting the force onto his arm.

With a growl Jaune throws the now useless shield down and runs towards the reloading tank before jumping onto the barrel and running for the hatch to the inside of the tank, arming a grenade as he did so.

''Surprise!'' Jaune shouts kicking the ANUBIS soldier stupid enough to open the hatch to fight him knocking the soldiers helmet off giving Jaune a few of the decayed head making him cringe before he stomps on the head breaking it like a melon followed by him tossing a frag into the tank and jumping off to the side as it detonates blowing the tank up from the inside.

''Stupid, stupid.'' Jaune berates himself holding in cries of pain having just landed on his broken arm making It even more painful than it already was.

''Threat detected.'' A robotic voice says causing Jaune to turn around onto his back to see several guns being pointed at him by ANUBIS soldiers making him sigh in defeat muttering a swear under his breath.

''Detaining illegal subject.'' One of the ANUBIS soldiers says bending down to grab Jaune only for its head to be blown off causing it to lock up for a moment before turning towards the area the gunshot had come from and open fire prompting the other ANUBIS soldiers to do so allowing Jaune to grab his side arm and pick the three in front of him off with the powerful revolver.

''Help the convoy across the desert they said…it'd be fun they said.'' Jaune growls out to himself as he stands up ignoring the foul smell coming from the dead ANUBIS soldiers around him, He'd smelt worse before such as the inside of a Grimm or himself after a week without bathing but the ANUBIS soldiers were still pretty bad.

''Cover…cover…'' Jaune mutters to himself holding his broken arm as he jogs towards his roughed up chopper trying not to shout every time a bullet near missed him or hit the armor on his shoulder.

' _Aura really likes to take its time with these kinds of things.'_ Jaune says internally ignoring the pain of his arm as he uses his body weight to put the Chopper right side up so he could drive it again, and so he did after throwing a fire dust crystal into the engine chamber and a quick reave to heat it up Jaune was quickly heading back towards the first big daddy.

''Hope you saw that because I'm not doing that again!'' Jaune shouts to the group gathered near the big daddy, stopping the Chopper in front of him before getting off and taking cover behind it.

''You sure? I blinked.'' The junk rat driver says to Jaune causing him to look flatly at the man who sent a grin his way making Jaune shake his head but not hold back the smirk from under his face cowl.

''Now's not the time for jokes so let's see if we can get the big daddy's moving again.'' Jaune says seriously jogging towards the ladder that was the only way up the big daddy since its main entrance was closed off.

''Holy shit that's a lot of people.'' Jaune says aloud finally reaching the top and seeing the two hundred or so people crammed into the area, with a sigh Jaune pulls himself off the ladder allowing the others up and begins to make his way through the people towards the cockpit to get the big daddy moving again.

''Hey kid where's the driver?'' Jaune asks seeing a small Faunus boy with sun touched blond hair standing in the empty cockpit getting his attention making him turn around with a scared look on his face seeing Jaune's imitating form.

''I-I don't know, h-he just left wh-when that big ship crashed.'' The boy stutters out with tears building in his eyes making Jaune frown at him.

''It's alright kid, I'll get us out of here don't worry.'' Jaune says reassuringly patting the boy's hair before moving up to the console and looking over what was in front of him.

''So what's your name anyways?'' Jaune asks making the boy jump in fright not expecting Jaune to talk while he tried to get the big daddy working.

''S-sun Wukong.'' The now named Sun stutters out to Jaune making him nod as he starts the big daddy up causing it to let out a thunderous roar.

''Sun huh? Good name, let's hope you're a good luck charm for me.'' Jaune says looking back at Sun making the boy smile slightly as the big daddy begins to move.

Honking the horn Jaune begins to move the big daddy away from the battle field hopping to not draw any attention from the ANUBIS or Grimm, his prayers however were not answered as the large Grimm from earlier that was throwing the ANUBIS soldiers around suddenly turns towards the moving big daddy sensing the large amount of negative emotions moving in a colossal mass.

''All big daddy's form up behind me we're leaving now!'' Jaune says into the radio prompting the other two big daddies' to start moving behind Jaune's to get the civilian's to safety.

''Guys keep anything that's hostile off us.'' Jaune says into his small personal radio prompting a series of 'Overs' from the seven men now guarding the first big daddy.

Jaune frowned suddenly seeing the large Grimm from earlier getting in the way of the big daddy leaving him with a choice that could ether kill or save them all.

[X] Drive through the Grimm! The big daddy weighted over ten times it's weight it should be impossible for it to stop them.

[X] Drive out of its way! The Grimm looked old maybe a few hundred years of age and it wouldn't get in the way if it didn't think it couldn't stop them, but this would lead them to drive through the battlefield instead.


End file.
